N95 with hidden secure AP

2008/06/15 by Lassi A. Liikkanen

N95 and a hidden, secure AP

This guide describes one success story in setting up N95 networking to a secure access point. In particular, I was using N95 (firmware V 21.0.0.016 RM-159) and a Linksys router with DD-WRT firmware. The security procedure included hidden SID, an incoming MAC filter list, and infrastructure security using WPA2 pre-shared key (PSK).

The problem

My original problem was that if I entered the settings for the network
(Menu -> Tools -> Settings -> Connection -> Access points -> Options -> New access point) I could not get the connection working, without having to re-enter the pre-shared key everytime and also consequantially creating a new connection. So, what happenede is that I could create a connection once (after providing the PSK), but each time new connection was added to access points (MyPoint(01), MyPoint(02), MyPoint(03), etc.) and they could not be reused without re-entering the PSK.

The procedure

You may first want to check your MAC and add it to your router filter list:

I got the problem worked around by first inserting manually the network once (e.g. MyPoint). Then I tried to use it browse net, which required me to give the PSK again and created a new network (MyPoint (01)). Now, you can go and delete the original network (MyPoint) AND edit the new
point (MyPoint (01)) and change the Network Status to Hidden and likely also the Connection name to something else...